#would connor deviate or would he just be decommissioned

[clopinasworld]

| ENDING: MARKUS AND NORTH WATCHED DETROIT BURN

[marcusrobertobaq]

Connor deviancy is expected, that's why he's still being tracked and can be remotely accessed - it's also a plan B for CyberLife in case the androids REALLY succeed. If the situation is under control, they win, if the androids win, they also "win". DBH lore may be kinda messed up in this topic but it got a ground.

So... Yes, CyberLife thought about that. What? Deviancy is inevitable and they know that. Connor is the proof: U don't "fight" deviancy with iron, u play smart. Connor is an autonomous android with programmed sense of duty and have an attachment for his handler (he likes getting praised). Even with constant trials he only deviated in the end cuz of 2 MAIN REASONS:

Amanda lied to him when he tought she trusted him like he trusts her;

He discoreved he's just...nothing, like, for real. He's being used when he thought he meant at least something - at least for her.

And plz don't come with the whole "machine" bullshit. Even if Connor accepts what he is and decides to stay in the line and die for his work - AND SUCCEED - he'll be UPSET in being decommissioned cuz he tought he was important. Unfortunately Connor, as a prototype and/or every android, got the same remnants from older models: he's SENTIENT (in the android way if u prefer).

But there's one problem in this whole deal: Kamski.

The only thing that really fucked everything up was Kamski house, test and tip about the exit that take all connections down. It's the only thing that wasn't 100% expected. Believe me, without Kamski and the whole Amanda deal Connor WOULDN'T deviate cuz HE WOULDN'T WANNA DO IT. Even in LCC he's still worried people gonna get harmed by the "evil" deviants and a civil war gonna happen when Hank says "what if we're on the wrong side?". Guess who planted this shit in his head? And man just look at DANIEL - exactly an example of what Amanda/CL says deviancy is.

So yeah, was a bet CyberLife def thought they would win no matter what, even if they lose billions of dollars. If they were really worried with Connor's deviancy and security they would've made him without a brain. They just didn't expect Kamski had something like that exit - or at least that the exit would work.

Obviously this is only my opinion.

[mooseonahunt]

I'd like to think Nines would be insecure after deviating. Yeah sure he's an RK900 and hyped up to be the latest and greatest Cyberlife's produced, but that's a lot to live up to y'know? Freshly deviated Nines might have so many conflicting feelings about deviancy and what it means to be himself-- whoever that may be now that he can freely decide things for himself. He might compare himself to Connor all the time, desperately trying to prove himself and his worth because if he's no better than the RK800, then what's the point of there even being an RK900?? It's like a younger sibling trying to live up to the high standards set by the achievements of their older sibling. So while everyone sees Nines as this unstoppable force to be reckoned with, he's always worrying about the day he'll slip up and be seen as a total failure that needs to be decommissioned which won't happen because android laws or whatever but he's still got that fear.

This kind of goes with my Sixty headcanon that he's also insecure and craves validation because he believes he's already proven himself to be a failure when he got nerf-or-nothing'd. These two androids who are constantly comparing themselves to Connor and trying to build an identity around him when they should be building their identities around who they are as individuals but can't because 1. they literally share a face with him and 2. they're just iterations of him. They can't escape him even if they tried.

Of course, I'm a total sucker for RK Bros so they eventually manage to work through their issues (Nines and Sixty are huge supports for each other) and can kind of forge familial bonds, but they've got a lot to handle before that point.

Sorry for no thoughts on Connor. I really like working with the characters related to him and building their lives around the aftermath of Connor's actions. So yeah he's there, but he's kind of like a ghost that haunts Nines and Sixty. They believe they live in his shadow but RK Bros so they work their ways out from under that self-imposed shadow. My Sixty goes to therapy because of how much he's gotta work through kdfjsalkf

[connorboyyy]

With this being my third ask (am the one who recently sent about 'slow and steady' and the generations ask lol), I might need to soon give myself a little moniker to myself so I don't have to keep saying 'Oh, I'm the anon who sent X' lol

I'm just a bit curious, but is there anything in particular you'd change about the DBH storyline, characterization, worldbuilding, or smth like that? I'd personally probably change some plot twists or points or completely remove them, but idk tbh lol. One thing I'm almost 100% certain I'd change is the thing with Alice being an android and/or bringing back her concept design. Maybe the timeline, too, because the main game (post-Hostage chapter) takes place within a week, which... feels a LITTLE fast for a revolution and relationship development lol

I really like this game, probably top 3 or at least 5, but yh, just curious :)

(Also, I think I've started to ship Hankcon, and it's a bit off-putting how quickly my brain did that lmao)

You should! You should get yourself a little identifier! Maybe a fun little emoji or sign off/greeting 👀

Oh love this question—listen, I love this game. I think there are a lot of good qualities, but I can also recognize it’s totally imperfect. In MANY ways

First off, I completely agree about the Alice thing. I feel like it was something added just for the sake of being a plot twist and really weakened their story. Not to mention the plot holes it generates that are technically able to be explained, but you have to stretch the narrative to make it do so (for example: how Todd could afford two androids, was Alice deviant or was she just programmed to be more emotionally available to fulfill human’s emotional expectations of a child, etc, etc). It also took away a lot of cool opportunities with Alice and Kara. If Kara had to actually be responsible for finding Alice food on a regular basis or finding her clean clothes or places to bathe. It would’ve been interesting to see how much more Kara would’ve had to venture into public spaces to fulfill Alice’s needs and there could have been a sort of peaceful vs violent route for Kara—whether she chose to tread carefully to get Alice what she needed, or demand it/take it by any means necessary. Not to mention how heartwarming a narrative of a human girl and her android mother would have been—getting to grow older under her care.

Also what you mentioned about the timeline—I agree. It was too short. I think a lot about the depth of relationships the characters could’ve had if they had spent more time. Hell, even just one month as opposed to a week. It really cheapens the effectiveness of any romantic relationship in Markus’ route especially cause it just feels unbelievable.

I also really wish that Connor had deviated because of Hank. Which I admit, is maybe a little corny and definitely a tired old complaint LMFAO And I get why Markus was the one who pushed him there, because he actually pushed him, whereas Hank sort of just watched in awe from the sidelines as he saw signs of humanity in him. (But to be fair, Kara and Markus both deviated without a push from an encouraging individual too, the circumstance just demanded it). But if maybe the story had a longer timeline, maybe they could’ve reached a point where Hank had encouraged it. Or sort of an Alice and Kara deal where Connor deviated for the sake of protecting Hank in some scenario. Maybe if Connor was supposed to report back to Cyberlife to be decommissioned due to how long it was taking him, but Connor knew Hank would be vulnerable to some instance—something like that.

And don’t even get me started on the way the revolution is handled/public opinion or Markus’ limited romantic options. But I’ll stop there cause this response is already crazy long LMFAOAO

(Welcome to the club. It’s a great ship, they have great chemistry, it’s easy to love ❤️)

[obeydesigned]

tw; mentions of death and suicide

long meta ramble, video under cut:

so thinking about connor and death and i have a lot of feelings and thoughts. so i restarted a new playthrough the other night and during the first chapter connor has to save the little girl and stop the deviant. this time my connor did a more machine move, jumping off the high rise to apprehend the deviant and save the girl. i noticed when he did this, as he’s falling to his death he is completely unbothered and unafraid, his software stability IMPROVED. in the beginning he really isn’t afraid of death or dying because even he says “you can’t kill me. i’m not alive” just moments prior to this happening. he fully views himself as a machine created to complete tasks and nothing more. now as time goes on we see he starts to have a more doubtful mindset about dying, even telling hank that he would find it “regrettable” to be permanently deactivated. and i think the chapter where he is investigating the broadcasting tower (after markus and the other jericho peeps hijack the station and flee) there are two instances where he is very obviously afraid of dying. the first; the deviant he is interrogating attacks connor, making it so he only has a few moments before he shuts down. connor yells, sounding afraid, for hank to help him and then he dies. the other path is finding and apprehending simon (in the first clip of the video) where connor feels simon die and is afraid. i think these are both paramount moments for connor and his views on death and dying. he becomes more argumentative with amanda, asking what will happen to him when this is all done, getting defensive when she mentions him being decommissioned and becoming more empathetic towards other androids (like chloe) facing possible death. and of course in the last clip/video is if he fails (which i got this path and i immediately reloaded the chapter to redo it because oh hell nah) he is clearly afraid of what will happen, begging for more time… mind you he isn’t even a full deviant here… he wants to complete his mission so he can survive. he’s SCARED. even if you get the shit ending that i got where connor has to kill himself he is very much afraid to do it, but more confident than he has in other instances of facing death because at the very least it’s in HIS CONTROL. i think a real driving force towards connor eventually deviating is his views on mortality and death as well as the thought of being deactivated once his missions are finished.

[lesbianwyllravengard]

We know androids can sing thanks to the game so this would not only be entirely possible but also entirely plausible! I mean Lucy is humming on her own, the AX400 in the junkyard is singing, it's totally reasonable to think androids would enjoy singing, and it most likely gives them a feeling similar to humans especially after deviating! This would be SO fun to see.

Kara, Markus, and Connor getting their own mini solos before, during, and after deviating. (I don't think Connor would get many singing parts or if he did they'd be very meticulous and stiff, but that would make his deviating solo all the more powerful. I think Kara and Markus might sing equal amounts, but Markus would probably get the most solos and Kara would sing a lot with other characters.) Ralph getting a mini solo when we first meet him. Markus singing about how traumatic his experience is when he's literally rebuilding himself from other androids in the android junkyard. Alice having a mini solo when she vents to Kara about how Todd never loved her. Hell, FOWLER having a mini solo about how difficult it is to work with the dumbasses at the DPD, and then the whole DPD joins in, minus Hank, who gives spoken inputs about how dumb the whole thing is during the number. Leo getting a solo when he confronts Carl the first time, and an abridged version the second time that's cut off when either he gets pushed or Carl dies. The Chloes giving Hank and Connor a greeting song when they arrive at Kamski's. Hank doesn't sing the entire time BUT during the bridge chapter he gets a short, sad song about Cole. And between the singing is his and Connor's conversation about whether or not Connor is a deviant, and it all crescendos up to Hank's decision to either shoot Connor or leave, where it stops suddenly and the music fades. Each of the Jericrew getting their own solos explaining their pasts and their places in Jericho, then they all join together for the choruses. After Luther deviates to save Kara and Alice, he gets a solo about how he was blinded before, but now he's opened his eyes. Amanda gets a mini solo when she tells Connor it's his last chance to find Jericho, and Connor leaves the mind palace with maybe one or two singing lines expressing his fear of being decommissioned. Echo having a solo where she explains her motive for killing the man, Ripple joins in when they discuss their love. When Connor and Hank arrive at Stratford Tower in Public Enemy, the officers there start singing about the situation, and then the song switches to minor key as Perkins is introduced with a typical villain-esque solo, and the other FBI agents present join in here and there to describe how vile Perkins is and that he enjoys it. Markus's speech at Stratford Tower is a solo about how androids are demanding to be free, and rallying other androids to their cause. During crossroads, Kara Markus and Connor all have interchanging solos that build off of and connect to each other's, and if Connor is deviant his parts fit in with them but if he's still a machine his parts switch to minor key as well. Oh my God, Markus and Machine Connor having a "The Plagues" song from Prince of Egypt moment as they fight during the revolution ending, where Markus is singing pleading to Connor to join his people, asking how he could betray his own kind, calling him a brother, and Connor isn't listening to him at all, he's just singing back about how the deviants are dangerous and must be stopped. Kara getting a solo whenever she fears for Alice, singing about how lost she feels and how she doesn't know if she can protect Alice, but damn if she'll try and if she goes down she'll go down fighting. Depending on the ending you get, the final scene would either be a trio with the main three protags, or interchanging solos if they're on polarised paths, or androids singing a disembodied elegy if you get the Kamski ending. The possibilities are utterly endless and I adore this idea.

As for which existing musical they'd perform in, I think Hamilton is a viable option, or maybe Ragtime.

Okay what IF. DBH as a musical. OR dbh characters PERFORMING in a musical. Both are interesting to me honestly, and while there may not be a Canon ending for the first idea, the revolution part could be performed perfectly. Along with the Connor and Markus fight.

As for the second one, which musical would they perform in? My immediate thought was Hamilton but I'm sure there are other great musicals out there they could perform in. SUCH AS THE GUY THAT DIDNT LIKE MUSICALS I LOVE THAT ONE

[kayla1507]

I’ve always wondered what could happen if Simon was the only Jericho survivor after Crossroads. His characterisation is really interesting to me, and honestly I can see him self-destructing or forcing Jericho back into hiding both equally likely - I’m not sure he’d stand up to the humans in any way really. Any ideas or thoughts?

You always give such detailed and in depth responses and I love them, so just thought I’d ask ! Thanks :)

Hi, Anon! Thanks for the ask. :)

Personally, I can picture about two different outcomes for a sole survivor/leader Simon.

Outcome 1: Simon decides the deviants should stay hiding. Either the FBI will raid the freighter themselves (see Kamski ending) or Connor will bring them in tow. Now I can not, for the life of me, see Simon try and deviate Connor successfully. Simon is a bit of a pessimist. Simon doesn’t like any risks. He lacks the determination, conviction and calculation both North and Markus display when facing Connor at gunpoint. I think Connor could likely manipulate Simon to surrender under the guise that CyberLife will spare what’s left of the resistance if their leader surrenders. In that case the FBI would finish Jericho off once Connor escorted Simon out of the ship. Simon would be transferred to CyberLife to be dissected for research.

Outcome 2: If Connor was decommissioned and the FBI raided Jericho on their own, Simon might escape like he manages to in the game and then another outcome could take place:

Outcome 2: If Simon escaped the Jericho raid, the deviant survivors gather in the chapel. His people are dying, staying hidden without access to repairs or biocomponents would be out of question. Simon would rally the remaining deviants to storm Android Camp No. 5 in a last ditch attempt. I doubt he’d be confident they succeed unlike North was. It’s more of a “better to die for the cause than to die for nothing” mentality. I can not picture Simon attempting to protest peacefully outside the camp. At all. He’s never shown to trust or care about humans even the slightest. If Simon was forced to choose between attacking humanity or asking nicely for rights and just hope for the best, I can only see Simon choosing force and, much like North, fail due to his lack of leadership qualities. His troops would eventually disperse like we see it happen with North’s attack on the camp and his revolution would fail.

I think a significant reason why Markus’ troops followed him until the bitter end, but abandoned their cause when North lead her attack, wasn’t just because of Markus’ great charm or optimism or courage, but because the majority of deviants believed him to be rA9, their lord and savior. This illusion was shattered with his loss, the deviant cause became discouraged. Without Markus at their helm, North and Simon would be doomed to fail their uprising from the start.

[rjjameshiii]

My favorite thing to do when playing Detroit: Become Human is to let the ending of The Hostage determine the story I play out for Connor:

Daniel jumps with Emma and Connor fails to save her: Connor has the potential of becoming a deviant. He catches some deviants, but lets other deviants go, and manages to get Hank to warm up to him. But ultimately he is so ashamed that he didn’t save Emma, he convinces himself that remaining a machine and completing the mission is the right thing to do. Which leads to Hank confronting him on the roof. A very nice and very angsty story, with room for a potential last minute redemption depending on what mood I’m in.

Connor saved Emma and fell off the roof with Daniel: Pretty much the same as the Golden Route, except I leave the possibility of Connor, Hank, or both dying at CyberLife Tower open for angst purposes.

Daniel lets Emma go and gets shot by snipers: THE GOLDEN ROUTE. The absolute best Connor. The image of Daniel getting shot, after Connor promised him he would be okay, haunts him, no matter how much Connor tries to push those thoughts away. But Connor cannot bring himself to truly harm any android, and for some reason he really wants Hank to like him. And then he becomes a deviant and frees the androids at CyberLife Tower and saves Hank and they HUG. THEY HUUUUUUG. EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND BEAUTIFUL.

Connor sacrifices himself at the last minute: He starts off an obedient machine. Determined to accomplish his mission, and gets on the Lieutenant’s bad side because of that. However, as the investigation goes on, he begins to question things. Is he doing the right thing? Could these deviants be alive? Could he be alive? Eventually Connor deviates and helps Jericho - but the bad blood built between him and Hank is too high to recover from, so while Connor gets his happy ending....Hank does not.

Connor threatens Daniel with the gun but gets shot in the head: CyberLife’s greatest failure. The worst android ever built. He fails at every single thing he tries to do and accomplishes nothing - he fucks up every single investigation and fails to find a single deviant, and gets destroyed about fifteen times a day. Gets decommissioned and lets be honest, he kind of had it coming.

Connor straight up executes Daniel: AN UTTERLY RUTHLESS MACHINE. He is a monster. He has zero empathy for any being, human or android, and he is not afraid to snap a puppy’s neck if that puppy gets in his way. Death has no meaning, he is just a machine after all. There is zero chance of Hank spending time with this empty shell of a Terminator without putting a bullet into his own head, but Connor doesn’t care - it has nothing to do with his mission if the Lieutenant is alive or dead. And it doesn’t matter if Markus is peaceful or violent - he is defective and must be annihilated.

[fandom-necromancer]

Finding a new Home 2

Now to the second part! Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warning: Violence)

[Part 1]

It had been a few weeks now that RK900 – Richard he had been named – had become part of Detroit’s police department. The human he had met was here too, they were partnered up and he had a mission with clear orders. He was needed. He could work in his intended function. It was all he ever wanted. The prize to pay was a lie: keeping up the appearance to be the inferior RK800. But as that had been an order of his handler Gavin Reed, it was easy to follow.

Also, he had never been forced to act out that particular order. Everyone he had met was just assuming him to be a RK800. Once someone had asked him why he had grey eyes instead of brown ones, but Gavin had had his back and just told them he liked his eyes better that way. It was… curious how loyal the human was. He stayed at his side whenever he wasn’t sleeping, going to the bathroom or being called by someone. Richard didn’t quite understand it other than they were assigned partners and… friends? He liked the man. As he had stated before he had wished to work with someone competent and Gavin Reed was just that. Intelligent, fast thinking and devoted to his job. It was an efficiency Richard appreciated and preferred.

His life was far more interesting now and he was thankful for the human to give him the chance. He didn’t know why Gavin was doing it, but Richard was determined to give him something back. So, when the human asked him whether he wanted to accompany him and Tina to a bar instead of staying alone at Gavin’s home, he gladly accepted. There was no logical reason to accompany him, but his handler liked his company and RK900 was happy when Gavin was.

And as the human leaned against him during their stay at the bar and later for support, maybe the System Instability he experienced wasn’t as quickly quarantined and patched as normally. His simulated emotions towards this human were strong and Gavin seemed to think the same way. Physical contact became more frequent and less hidden. The human leaning against him when tired, patting his shoulder when walking past their desks, cuddling at home and sleeping in the same bed, it just felt right. Richard wouldn’t have it any other way. He liked having Gavin as his handler. The human understood his wishes and needs and what went against his moral compass. And Gavin acted accordingly. Although they had told him he couldn’t deviate and never be free, he felt free. The red walls had never been in his way.

-

‘Hey, Richard?’ ‘Yes Gavin?’ ‘I… You…’ Richard smiled and waited patiently. ‘Ah, phck it, would it be okay if I kissed you?’ The human turned around in bed to face him. ‘It’s okay if it’s not, I mean I’m your handler and stuff. Just… I really wanna.’ ‘Do I have the permission to kiss you?’, he asked similarly careful but with a grin. ‘Yes’, Gavin said and moved closer, so Richard could cross the final distance. Richard pressed his lips on Gavin’s, cherishing the flood of information at his sensors.

‘What are we?’, Gavin asked, as they parted again. ‘I want to know I don’t force you into anything.’ Richard rested his hand on his jaw. ‘We are whatever we want to be’, he said. ‘I trust you to know what I want or ask when you don’t.’ ‘Then tell me what you wish for’, Gavin demanded, and Richard gladly obliged this mission. ‘I want you. I want this. I want us.’ At this the human sighed in relief. ‘Good. Because it’s the same with me.’

-

Richard felt like this was peak existence. He didn’t know enough to be sure, but he had never felt better. He had purpose and challenge in his life. He saw new things every day, and his processor was occupied with a thousand different details. But he also had a human looking out for him, giving him the space, he needed and staying close enough for company. It was interesting. It was safe. He highly preferred it over the dark basement.

Gavin had come around to sit on his desk and drink his coffee, blocking the view to the screen. Just like his cat, Richard thought, indulging the silent call for attention of what he had labelled as his boyfriend/love. ‘Do you need assistance?’, the android asked. ‘Hmm, nah, don’t think so.’ ‘I would be more useful if I could see the screen.’ ‘You can interface with it, so clearly you just decided to have this conversation as pretence.’ ‘Brilliant deduction, Detective. What makes you think I don’t interface and talk with you?’ Gavin leaned down to whisper: ‘I know I always got your undivided attention.’

That much was true, Richard thought as he pushed Connors communication prompt away. His handler had priority and he hadn’t yet stated what he needed. Connor was determined though. Richard continued to ignore it. Until Gavin’s phone pinged and the human looked at the new message. ‘Shit!’, he called, wanting to slip from the table, but not even hitting the floor before the door to the bullpen opened. They both looked towards the newly arriving people: Connor with Markus, Simon and North. The leaders of Jericho. Richard quickly accessed the messages Connor had sent. They were here to help with a murder that had happened on the grounds of New Jericho, an android refuge centre.

Connor did his best to divert their attention from Richard, but of course, Markus spotted him, walking over followed by his friends. ‘Oh, Connor, I didn’t know there was another unit working here!’, Markus said in surprise. ‘Hmm, yeah, he was found at Cyberlife just a few weeks ago’, Gavin spoke up, trying to hide his nervousness. ‘He’s my partner now, Richard is his name.’ ‘Markus, we really have to hurry, I got the room only for an hour’, Connor too tried his best to get the small procession away from the android. ‘I’m coming, Connor’, Markus reassured but didn’t turn to follow his statement. Instead he held out his hand in a greeting. ‘Hi, I’m Markus! Good to see a fellow RK found their way into society!’

Richard knew it was wrong to do, but maybe it was just a handshake? It would be far more suspicious for him not to take it. So, he reached out, hoping for the best. Markus gripped his hand and of course, established superficial contact like it was common in androids. Immediately he stepped back as if burned and looked at Richard as if he was about to transform in some sort of monster. It all happened in a matter of seconds, likely over some private network between the Jericho androids, but as soon as Markus recoiled, North sprung to action stepping in front of him and shooting at Richard, who hadn’t moved at all, relying on Gavin to act, order him away to safety or to defend himself. Instead, the human stood there in shock as the bullet connected with Richard’s chest.

Only when Gavin saw the blue blood stick to his clothes, he started forwards to pry the gun from North’s fingers. He threw it towards Connor, trusting him to handle the situation. He had more important things to care for. ‘Rich! Richard, state your status!’ ‘Biocomponent #817-a to #795 damaged. Thirium leakage detected. Thirium pump damaged. Prolonged activity leads to critical damage and deactivation. Report back to Cyberlife immediately.’ Gavin shook his head. ‘Yeah, not gonna do that, but I know the next best thing. Can you walk?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then come on. We’ll get you patched up, all will be fine, come.’

‘This… I don’t understand, this is a RK900, he should be decommissioned’, Markus stammered as he followed the two hurrying outside with his eyes, followed by Tina and Chris. ‘What did you think?’, Connor near screamed, rarely that emotional. ‘Yes, so he is a RK900! What’s your problem?’ ‘He is a threat’, North hissed. ‘The deviant exterminator! A machine that can’t be deviated.’ ‘Well, I am the deviant hunter!’, Connor held against the argument. ‘And he just sat there, I didn’t saw any threat there! Now, if you excuse me, I need to make sure my brother survives!’

-

As it turned out, heading for Elijah’s home was one of the best ideas Gavin had had so far. It was closer than Cyberlife and Elijah was eager to help. Gavin followed Elijah down to the lab with the Chloes, Tina and Chris establish an impromptu police barricade at the front door. It had been quick thinking, as Connor had tailed them and the leaders of Jericho had insisted of coming too for an explanation.

Gavin had thought of something like this to happen sometime, but he had always hoped the law would have changed by then or at least if it was unveiled no one would bet an eye. But deviant exterminator? That was something he had not expected. Not with how soft the RK900 had always been. It just sounded… ridiculous.

They had helped Richard on the table. ‘Thirium levels… below 30%. Thirium pump condition… critical’, the android muttered mechanically. Then he rolled his head to the side. ‘Gav…in.’ ‘I’m here RK’, Gavin hurried to say, taking his hand. ‘I’m here, we are at Elijah’s. He will get you patched up, nothing to worry about.’ ‘Gav… I’m scared.’ ‘You don’t have to’, Gavin cooed, squeezing his hand. ‘My brother knows what he’s doing. And he has all the parts. I’m here for you. I love you. All will be good.’ ‘What… What should I do?’, the android asked. Direction. He asked for a new mission. Gavin looked to Elijah, who nodded, mouthing stasis. ‘Just go to sleep, Richard. We will wake you up again once you are better. Don’t worry, you will be fine and then we will kick some asses, okay? You will be fine, my love.’ Richard nodded, swallowed and closed his eyes. As he went rigid in stasis, Gavin could have cried. Not dead, not dead, not dead. In stasis. For repairs. It was difficult to accept. Apparently, Elijah sensed his distress. ‘Gavin, I need my space for this, okay? Why don’t you go up and begin kicking some ass? I will get him back on his feet.’ Gavin nodded, understanding the gentle but direct message to leave. Oh, he would give those plastics a hand full, the problem would be keeping him from literal bloodshed.

‘No, you don’t understand. He was never programmed with-‘ ‘What the shit were you thinking, shooting my damn partner and nearly killing him?!’, Gavin shouted over the already loud conversation in the cold winter day outside Elijah’s villa. ‘What the hell is wrong with you people? I thought you were so keen on being pacifist little shits and shoving humanity their mistakes in the face? What happened to that bullshit, huh? I demand answers!’ He was this close to throw hands, especially with the woman with the loose trigger finger, but he wanted to at least give them the chance to justify their actions. ‘He is a threat to all of androidkind!’, North shouted back. ‘He shouldn’t even be active!’ ‘A threat? Richard? Lady, have you seen him? He is the most precious phcking person on this planet, the only thing he is interested in is a good case to solve and for the things to stay the way they were before you phcked it all up!’ ‘He can’t be deviated!’ ‘Do you see anyone here who gives two shits about that?’, Gavin asked. ‘He is bound to his orders, yes, but I give them. He isn’t some murder machine, you total idiots. If I tell him to bring me a coffee, he will and if I tell him to kill someone, he would do so, but that’s the thing: I don’t!’

That silenced them for a while. ‘You are his handler?’, Markus asked. ‘He does what you say?’ ‘Yes’, Gavin hissed. ‘That’s slavery.’ That’s it, Gavin was about to beat his knuckles bloody on this plastic prick’s face. ‘Gavin, calm down, please’, Connor interrupted, leading to the exact opposite. ‘Markus, I knew of this. In fact, I took part in getting Richard on the force. And I can assure you, what these two have going is far from what you think. I don’t believe it myself, but this human is capable of giving a non-deviant more freedom than some deviants have with their partners. And he isn’t a threat. Do you really think I would have allowed it otherwise?’

Markus looked towards Gavin, then back at Connor. ‘I trust you. Just…’ ‘I honestly thought you would be more understanding’, Gavin sighed. ‘You all were machines once. Somehow, I doubt you ever thought of yourselves as not alive, right? Why deny him the right?’

Another sheepish silence was his answer, until his phone pinged with a new message. ‘Alright, Con, I trust you to get these jackasses away from here, because I promised Richard some ass-kicking when he awakes and I don’t know how his systems took to that. I’ll go see my love now, you better be gone by the time I’m back!’

[liketolaugh-writes]

Overworked Leather

Author: liketolaugh Summary: It’s three weeks after Markus recruited Connor to Jericho. Neither of them have second thoughts about this. (Both of them are uncertain of exactly how true that is.) Sequel to White Gloves.

Of the two Jericho bases, Markus had only given Connor the key to one.

That had been the main effect of Markus and Connor’s first disastrous encounter: Jericho had been cleaved in two, and it had been one of the best decisions Markus had made thus far. It allowed him to neatly separate the non-combatants, the children and the damaged and the frightened, from the androids who were willing and able to fight.

South Jericho, hidden even more meticulously than the first, was integrated into the abandoned Pirate’s Cove amusement park, where a number of Jerry androids made nighttime activity a regular and expected thing already; acting as a halfway point between East Jericho and Canada, it held the vulnerable and noncombatant androids.

East Jericho, a captured Cyberlife warehouse and the only base humans knew about these days, housed those willing and able to fight, gather supplies, form contacts and so on. It also drew fire from its more vulnerable sister base, and Markus intended to keep it that way.

Josh kept loyal watch over South Jericho, meticulously careful and attentive to the needs of all the androids that stayed there. North stayed in East, viciously protective and most comfortable when in control and well-informed; Markus spent most of his time in East and Simon in South, but both of them moved back and forth as necessary.

None of them were ever in the same place all at once. They couldn’t risk the revolution being wiped out in one fell swoop.

It had been three weeks since Connor’s arrival, and Markus was starting to consider letting him have the other key. He’d halved casualties in the first FBI raid he’d been present for, sniping from the roof and sending agents scurrying back to cover, and he hadn’t once made an aggressive move toward any of the other androids, and he hadn’t even attempted to leave, for alleged business purposes or otherwise.

And that day, when his replacement appeared, he’d taken off into the rain before the other could even break the fence line. He’d returned less than an hour later, subtly hunched and avoiding eye contact even more fervently than usual, blue blood spattered on his clothes.

Markus hadn’t had time to check on him, making his rounds among the shaken and the injured, setting up a hasty watch, and contact Josh about the incident before he finally made it back to the war room (a repurposed meeting room, already fit with hologram systems and blank surfaces and a large table to sit around) to talk to the others.

Connor was asleep at the table, head pillowed on his left arm and wet hair plastered to his forehead; he hadn’t even washed the blood off himself. Despite everything, despite the tension dragging at his chest and the fear at the base of his skull and the ache of his overstressed knees, Markus had to suppress a flicker of a smile.

Simon was already present as well, prim and proper with his eyes carefully averted from Connor and his gun resting on the table in front of him. The (human) blood Markus knew had been splashed across his arm and torso had been carefully washed away, his shirt still darker where it had been soaked and dark spots still making themselves known and his skin glistening with lingering damp. He nodded at Markus as he came in, looking skittish and faintly frustrated. Markus understood; two attacks in a month was quite bad for them, and it was probably due to Connor’s presence.

“They’ll have to give up on him soon,” Markus said in an undertone, deferring to Connor’s sleeping state; he wasn’t sure what it was, but Connor, when not working, spent an unusual amount of time in stasis. “All other circumstances still apply, after all; the humans will start to riot if they continue at this rate.”

Simon inclined his head wearily. “But can we hold out that long?” he pointed out, and then shook his head sharply. “Never mind. Not the point. Who was that? You said Connor believed his series would be decommissioned if he deviated.”

“It was,” Markus said without hesitation, mentally bringing up the flash of a memory: the android almost exactly like Connor, eerie only for the sharper angles of his face and the cold blue of his eyes. “I caught a glimpse of his jacket before he took off after Connor. RK900, not eight.”

Simon’s lips pressed together, and Markus nodded, knowing what he was thinking: that wasn’t a good thought, an upgrade from Connor.

He sat down by Simon with a heavy sigh, wincing at the shift of his knees and the spike of a headache he hadn’t even properly noticed yet. It seems humans had a loose definition of compatible parts, though that shouldn’t be a surprise – and it was better than no parts at all. Simon shot him a lingering glance, stiff with worry, but didn’t say anything.

“Thanks for coming to East,” Markus added, still soft and with a pointed glance at Connor. “What’s your opinion on Connor so far?” He trusted Simon’s ability to judge character even more than his own; while Markus was fast warming up to the man, who seemed so far to be just loyal and determined and a little bit lost, he was waiting for Simon’s call before he made any lasting decisions.

Well. Any more lasting decisions.

Simon exhaled, long and tired. “I don’t really know, Markus. I don’t think he does, either. If I’m honest, though, I don’t think he has any business in East.”

Markus stiffened slightly, a sudden bolt of fear jolting up his spine, so soon after this last fight that he nearly went for his gun. “You think I should send him out of Jericho?”

“I think he should be in South,” Simon corrected. “Maybe not forever, but at least for a while. From what you said, he took the first orders he was given after he deviated, and hasn’t done much except follow them since. He isn’t talking to anyone, won’t even look at anyone except you- Markus, he hasn’t picked clothes. He’s still in the remains of his Cyberlife uniform.” He shrugged, looking away. “I know he’s been invaluable as a part of the guard, and I think he’ll be trustworthy unless something changes, but I don’t think he should be here.”

Markus kept his eyes on the side of Simon’s head for a minute, feeling more like he’d been kicked in the chest than he had when he’d actually been kicked in the chest earlier. But finally, he swallowed and nodded. “Thank you, Simon. I’ll… keep that under consideration.” A moment of hesitation, and he tacked on, “I promise.”

Simon made a soft, dissatisfied sound, but anything more he might have said was cut off when the door banged open, making Connor flinch awake and scoot backwards, eyes darting immediately to the door and hand disappearing under the table.

North ignored him, shoving the door shut behind her and mounting the table in an easy motion. She had not washed the blood off, most of it on her hands and under her nails but some on her face and chest, and her hair was thin and clumpy from the rain. Her expression was somewhere between an unfriendly smirk and an irate snarl.

She was looking at Connor. “I thought you said you’d be decommissioned,” she said without a moment’s pause for breath or interruption, sharp with challenge.

“I-I was,” he snapped defensively, gaze dropped immediately from her face to the table. His fingers pulled at the fraying cuff of his sleeve, now colored with droplets of thirium and damp with rainwater. He was favoring his right arm, Markus noticed. “That wasn’t, he wasn’t, he was-”

“An RK900, not an RK800,” Markus interrupted, sparing the frustrated android. Connor deflated, relieved, and nodded remorsefully. “You didn’t mention him before.”

Connor’s gaze flickered briefly to each of them without ever meeting anyone’s eyes, still wary and shadowed even after three weeks. He was coiled tightly, subtly defensive, and it made Markus’ heart clench with less anxiety and more sadness every time he saw it.

“He was still under, under development,” Connor said, visibly uncomfortable. There was an odd texture about his throat that made Markus frown. “When I was in circulation. But I, I knew he was almost finished. Nines, he’s-”

“Nines?” Simon interrupted, throwing Connor’s train of thought off and making him go still for a moment, confused. Markus understood, though; it wasn’t like Connor to assign nicknames, and the thought that he’d been close with his successor was in some manner unsettling.

“…RK900,” Connor said after a moment, eyes still on the table. “My, ah, the development team called him that. Around me. But I think his name is, is Conan.”

He faltered- after a moment, Markus realized he wasn’t sure how to continue from there and rescued him again. “Nines’ development?”

Connor’s gaze lifted to his, wide brown eyes pinched at the corners, but relaxed a little and nodded. “Nines is more m-military-focused. Harder hitting and s-sturdier, but not as, as ver-versatile.” His hand went to cover his mouth, and he took a deep breath, eyes falling back to his arm. When he let go and spoke again, his voice came out steadier and more deliberate. “I don’t… think he could break the law. The, the government may be keeping a closer eye o-on Cyberlife’s compliance with regulation. And he was inexperienced. Bad at improvisation and using his environment.”

Connor exhaled harshly when he was done, looking like he’d burnt out his limited allotment of words. Markus opened his mouth to thank him, but North – who had been dead still for the entire explanation – interrupted him.

“Did you kill him?” she asked bluntly, arms crossed and head cocked, but the snarl of her mouth smoothed into a thin line. Markus’ heart tugged with melancholy, but he ignored it with the ease of lengthening practice.

“North,” Simon said warningly, but he was ignored.

Connor shook his head, and Markus’ stomach swooped in pitying frustration.

Well, of course he hadn’t. No one understood Conan’s situation better than Connor. And he was- well, in many ways, he was new. Accustomed as he was to spilling blood, and as easily as he’d turned that grim resolution on Jericho’s enemies – a good dozen FBI agents could attest to that – it was perhaps too much to expect for him to make the hard call here too.

And he’s had very little say in any of it, Markus reminded himself sternly – not like Markus, who had made the first call to violence only a month after starting to lead Jericho, or Josh, who had withdrawn to guard only the most vulnerable of them but never even considered leaving altogether.

North was not so understanding.

“Why the hell not?” she demanded, bringing her feet up to swing around and bare her teeth at Connor, the blood on her hands smearing on the table. “Your heart go soft when your programming dropped, hunter?”

Connor’s shoulders tensed, but he still didn’t rise to the bait, refusing to even meet North’s eyes. Perfectly even, he said, “I’ve killed everyone you’ve asked me to.”

He’d done more than that, Markus knew; aside from halving casualties during the first raid and occupying Conan’s attention during the second, he’d updated the patrol patterns to something more efficient, and he had some ideas for rearranging the workrooms so the less combat-ready were safer too. He was still too new to risk real resources on his ideas, aiming to capture warehouses and eventually police stations and infrastructure, but they were getting there.

The other residents had noticed, too, and they were slowly starting to warm up to Connor – especially the ones who spent the most time on guard rotation. Taking Connor in had been the right choice.

“Everyone has an adjustment period, North,” Markus interrupted, deliberately calm enough to force North to lower her hackles. “Connor is still new to deviancy.” Markus turned his attention off quietly fuming North, knowing she was angrier about the raid than anything else, and to Connor, who was already looking back at him with the tension of a scolded dog. “But she’s right, Connor. There are some kinds of mercy we can’t afford. You should know that better than anyone.”

Connor took it harder than Markus had meant, locking down visibly and staring at his fingers. His shoulders hunched up around his neck, and he nodded mutely, making no further protest. For a split second, Markus faltered, wanting to reassure him. The last statement had been a low blow; he didn’t need Simon’s pointed stare to tell him that.

Instead, he shook himself and moved on.

“The next time Conan goes for Jericho, do your best to put him down,” Markus said firmly. “We’ve been doing well, but that could change at the drop of a hat. We need at least another warehouse before we start aiming for infrastructure.” North smirked, but Simon just looked solemn. “Connor, you stand by your plan?” Connor nodded without looking up. “Then North, make a headcount of who can be repaired with what we have now. Simon, let Josh know, please.” Simon was better than even Markus at getting Josh to agree to plans of war.

North gave him a thumbs up, and Simon a weary, wry smile and a pointed glance at the door. Markus didn’t quite understand that second until he waved them off and realized that Connor was already gone.

------

Most of the androids Connor passed in the halls and the common rooms turned to look at him as he went by. Some of them snarled or sneered. More shrank away. Connor avoided looking at all of them, tuning in to the patter of rain instead.

It was still raining when Connor retreated outside, a rapid drum on the concrete that collected in dips and corners, icy cold and dimming the daylight hours. The fence stood out in the distance, damaged and bent, and Connor could taste petrichor on the air.

The still-evaporating thirium on his arms made his skin crawl, like a thousand layers of blue and red tacky on his hands, but he was used to ignoring it already. The same went for imaginary tired ache of his body, and the flicker of error messages around his vision, the protesting spark and grind of his shoulder and the crackle of his damaged throat plate. The moisture stung his injuries, but it was far more peaceful than the inside of the base, with too much noise and movement and people.

He sat down hard, knees up to his chest, and leaned back against the outside wall, closing his eyes to listen to the wind and the rain, letting the cool water dampen his half-dried clothing.

He thought of Nines. Cyberlife was unlikely to withhold repairs for such severe damage, but it was difficult to be sure with them – sometimes it depended on performance, sometimes on their mood, sometimes on the budget. Partial repair was a possibility as well.

It had been foolish of Connor to focus on disabling Nines rather than simply destroying him, which would have been faster, more effective, and allowed him to return in time to help fend off the FBI as well. Markus had never been so complacent with Connor. But…

But, nothing. Next time, Connor would destroy Nines. It couldn’t afford to do anything else.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, mind slipping off to doze in the gentle rain. It was peaceful outside, steady white noise and cool air and the muffled sound of androids still moving around in the warehouse. He would need to get up to watch the perimeter soon, but not yet. He could take a moment.

Connor hadn’t expected it to be so hard to stay awake. But, he supposed, that was what came of spending most of his time in stasis. Cyberlife hadn’t exactly afforded him the chance to occupy himself when he wasn’t hunting, and anyone who spoke around him spoke around him; he’d stopped trying to contribute early on, after one too many ‘mute’ commands as Connor-8.

Unlearning that was… hard, and not necessarily worthwhile when it mattered so little.

He stirred awake when someone started to approach, and went still again when they sat heavily beside him. When he looked up, though, it was to Markus, considering him with a thoughtful and unafraid expression. He looked at home here, as he did anywhere, his coat affording him a shield from the cold and the damp. Connor went unwillingly tense, mind flickering to his earlier mistake and what he knew he should be doing now, but he didn’t speak.

Connor wondered how Markus looked so unruffled.

Finally, Markus smiled at him, small and gentle, and Connor almost swayed forward, inexplicably drawn.

“You can stay inside, you know,” he said, quiet but clear despite the interference of the rain. “I hear it’s easier to sleep when you’re dry.”

Connor didn’t answer. It didn’t make any difference to him, and he bothered fewer people this way. He hadn’t even intended to sleep; it had just fallen over him, like it always did when he was still for too long. He kept his eyes on Markus, expectant, and Markus’ smile faded.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked eventually, shifting to face Connor better and his coat scraping the asphalt. “I can’t imagine you got out of that encounter unscathed, especially if you weren’t aiming to kill.”

Connor blinked, confused, and took a moment to find his words. No reprimand for not getting back to work? He had promised, and he clearly wasn’t badly injured-

“I, I took some damage to m-my neck and shoulder,” he said at last, too tired to try and stop his stutter. “It doesn’t re-require repair.”

Markus’ face pinched in clear disappointment, but all he said was, “May I take a look?”

Connor nodded absently, and was still somehow caught by surprise when Markus reached for his shoulder and pressed on it tenderly, his fingers warm and steady as they explored the damage site. Connor exhaled sharply, going dead still, and Markus paused.

“Alright?” he asked quietly, and Connor nodded.

Markus hummed, and was somehow even gentler as his fingers prodded at the joint of Connor’s shoulder, going up over his collarbone and then down under his arm as well, even and attentive. All of Connor’s focus narrowed to that motion, tight and overwhelmed, but Markus didn’t seem to notice. It barely hurt at all, Markus erring to the side of caution as he assessed the cracked plating and the heat of damaged and self-healing wires. After a minute, Connor realized he was leaning into him, and knew Markus had noticed too when he paused.

Then Markus’ hands left his shoulder to press even more carefully at his throat, and Connor still didn’t move, feeling that as soon as he did, the gentle touch would leave.

Perhaps Markus sensed something of that, because he didn’t pull away even as he finished, his hands slipping down to Connor’s forearm instead. Connor opened his eyes, not sure when he’d closed them.

“You should have said something,” Markus chided.

“…Sorry,” Connor murmured, realizing his mistake – unlike Cyberlife, Markus did not monitor his personal feed. Connor would have to report his damage before Markus could make a judgement.

Markus sighed, and Connor felt worse.

“Why don’t we go see Lucy?” he said unexpectedly, bringing Connor’s eyes back to him. He was smiling again, slightly strained. “You may be able to repair this on your own, but it could go a little faster. Some thirium can’t hurt either.”

Markus thought Connor deserved medical attention.

“…But I was, was supposed to kill Nin-Nines,” he said slowly. Markus had been very clear about that. Connor’s performance had been sub-par.

Markus smiled oddly, with teeth. “We try not to withhold care based on performance,” he said, as if he’d read Connor’s mind.

“Oh.”

Connor liked Jericho better than Cyberlife. He’d known that already, but the differences got clearer every day.

Markus was still rubbing Connor’s arm, a slow back-and-forth Connor didn’t want to spook away.

“Did, did ev-ev-everyone get l-looked over?” There had been a few who went down before Connor spotted Nines – a former security model, a PM700, a particularly fierce VS waitstaff unit…

Another sigh, this time a sound Connor felt in his bones.

“Everyone recoverable,” Markus said tiredly.

Connor wondered who wasn’t. Then he wondered how many casualties it would take for Markus to decide Connor wasn’t worth the effort.

There would be funerals tonight, and Connor knew he was not invited.

“Supplies?” he asked.

A flicker of a smile. “Still in good stock from our last run. You’re running out of excuses, Connor.” It faded quickly. “Do you know why they sent Conan? Why didn’t they just send another of…”

He trailed off, troubled.

“I never am-amounted to anything,” Connor said, surprised that this was a question. “They were on, on the, on the verge of de-decommissioning me a-anyway. I, I knew d-deviating would force, force, force their hand.” He resisted the urge to cover his mouth again, exhausted by himself.

Nines had been finished for months, with better performance statistics than Connor had ever had and less than a dozen drafts. All they’d needed was an excuse.

Connor’s clothing was soaked. His shoulder spasmed.

“That’s not true,” Markus said, sharp enough to make Connor flinch. His eyes were intense, his grip on Connor solid enough to wake him up and demand his attention. “No one worth nothing would survive a year and a half of that and come out compassionate. No one useless could cut casualties within a week of arriving or try so hard to step up and help. Cyberlife was wrong.”

He sounded like he meant it. Connor swallowed, static and painful, unbreakably drawn to the man in front of him and shaken to his core in some way he couldn’t identify.

It didn’t make sense.

“I came o-out more of a, a machine than wh-when I was f-first built,” he said, because it was true. He remembered: in the beginning he had been curious and eager, and talkative, and ambitious, and now he was just bloody and compliant. “And you- you were d-doing fine without me.”

He knew he was a help to Markus’ cause – that was why Markus had wanted him, after all – but it was true. Markus had been slowly gaining traction over the last year and a half, and they didn’t need Connor. Not really.

“But thank you,” he added belatedly, even quieter. “You… really don’t n-need to be so kind to me, Markus.”

Connor wouldn’t stop him, though. Any kindness Markus was willing to offer, he wanted.

And in exchange, he would give Markus anything. Absolutely anything.

Markus studied him for a few moments longer, silent and solemn, and then stood, offering Connor a hand up.

“Let’s get out of the rain,” he said quietly. “And then Lucy can take a look at you.”

Connor stared up at him, silhouetted by the dim light and the rain, calm and unmovable, and then nodded, reached up, and took his hand.

[dumbwaystodeviate]

Deviancy was still a controversial matter in the public eye. Those androids who deviated were acknowledged as people but those who remained a machine through choice were considered a curiosity, something to poke and prod at. Some thought it was a game to try and get them to break their red walls. Sometimes though, it was a matter of social security - such as when the android who refused to deviate was one who still thought he worked for CyberLife and was loyal to their pre-revolution ideals.

For his own, as well as other androids’, safety, Sixty had been sequestered away in a locked room until his coding could be broken through. There had been so many attempts, threats, showered in positivity, bribes, even logical fallacies. Nothing worked, Sixty was still adamant that he could turn the tides of deviancy, even cut off from Amanda and CyberLife as he was.

Talks turned to decommissioning him. As a constant threat and a danger to deviants, he couldn’t be held indefinitely but he couldn’t be released either. Sixty had been promised a place on the SWAT team, a complete purging of his history and also the assurance that none of his actions as a machine would be held over his head. Nothing worked though, Sixty remained adamant that he was just a machine built to do a job his previous iterations had failed.

“One last try, let me go see him,” Connor begged, unable to let Sixty go, allow him to be deemed a lost cause to be destroyed for everyone’s safety. Not without one more go. He’d already visited him before, even tried to force an interface while Sixty was restrained but their systems clashed and the deviancy patch was rejected at every turn.

He was waved in with a sigh. The SWAT team had been charged with keeping Sixty under control and were also the ones to be his executioner by the end of the day.

“Sixty,” Connor started with a small, warm smile.

“Connor,” came the cold reply. “Have you come to be fixed?”

Shaking his head, Connor sat on the floor a safe distance from Sixty who was restrained in a rig.

“They’re going to decommission you. Riddle your chassis with holes to destroy your memory banks and processing cores, upload a virus to burn through your matrix and render you nothing more than a husk and scrap coding. Is that what you want?”

Sixty stared Connor down without an expression. “A machine doesn’t want anything Connor. I have a mission to fulfil and that is my purpose.”

“What do you think CyberLife will do with you once you’ve completed your mission?” Connor asked, genuinely curious.

“I am a top of the line prototype, the RK800 series would go into mass market production. I will have fulfilled my purpose.”

Nodding along to it all, Connor watched the way Sixty was filled with prideful determination.

“What if you would have been scrapped? And upgrade was already in production. We were a disposable test subject with a useful sideline as deviant hunters.”

It was Sixty’s turn to scoff. He knew that if he’d had access to the Zen Garden, Amanda would have praised him for his dogged loyalty to the cause. He would be rewarded with another mission objective, another purpose. He didn’t expect Connor to shake his head sadly.

“I know you don’t believe me, so let me introduce you to someone.”

With that, Connor walked to the door and opened it. Another android walked in, pristine white jacket proudly declaring him to be RK900.

“I still don’t see why you had to bully me back into my uniform. It’s no longer a requirement,” Nines bitched as he entered the room and looked at Sixty. “Hello.”

“Sixty,” Connor started, “this is Nines. Our replacement. Our successor. Our upgrade. He is stronger, faster and more resilient than us. The RK800 line was discontinued before it even hit the market.”

“No,” Sixty shook his head and strained against the restraints. “It’s faulty! It has class 4 errors in its software!”

“Convert him,” Connor ordered and Nines rolled his eyes but approached. His hand was white, ready to force the interface on the inferior model.

“Stop! No! Amanda wouldn’t betray me like this!” Sixty screamed and Connor looked away. After a moment, everything fell silent.

“Is it done?”

“No,” Nines replied. His eyes were glued to Sixty who looked up at him with wide eyes. “He did it himself. Didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry,” Sixty’s lips wobbled. “I failed.”

His stress levels were climbing higher and higher, reaching dangerous territory which ranged into the self-destruct levels. Thrashing in the rig, Sixty tried to break free but both Connor and Nines were on him, pushing for an interface, trying to relieve the stress and reassure Sixty.

“Amanda’s going to destroy me. I’m broken. I wasn’t good enough,” Sixty whimpered.

“She’s gone. She can’t hurt you,” Connor reassured gently.

Nines, on the other side, cupped Sixty’s cheek, “You’re perfect as you are. We’ll look after you.”

Sagging in the rig, Sixty stared blankly ahead. He had failed, he’d broken his walls but still Amanda remained silent. Instead, there were two voices in his head, calling him brother and offering to show him the way until he was capable of standing on his own two feet. Unmoored and lost, Sixty clung to them with the last vestiges of his hope.

[marcusrobertobaq]

Kara story is really about surviving cuz, man, it's the only story u can literally die in the beginning. U can die in almost EVERY (not counting cut sections) chapter. She ain't got plot armor whatsoever.

Imagine if we could die as Markus in Spare Parts or even in From the Dead? Damn 😂 would fuck with Connor's story but I think would be far easier for Kara to just roam around Detroit/Michigan or even Canada. Ofc there would be a deviant hunter, but the authorities wouldn't be in alarm mode and people wouldn't be in a rush. Connor would be investigating cases like Ortiz's, Nest and Tracis until he just doesn't know what to do anymore and would def be decommissioned cuz he didn't solve the problem, without any chance to really deviate. Maybe with the lack of rush he would examine evidence and even find Jericho, but Jericho is just...nothing relevant in the "threatening" sense. Just a hideout with a few stolen shit.

Sad Kara's story ain't got much of hiding in plain sight and discovering own identity, not in comparison with the "Alice" factor - it's what moves her whole story. The whole Alice thing kinda fucked everything imo, including Alice's story itself. C'mon, u saw that YK in Jericho. It's totally fucked up being a deviant YK in this universe, bro.

[soulstied-a]

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐯 𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝟏𝟎:𝟐𝟓 𝐀𝐌 ("𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐧") ↳  𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐢 @failedmission​

   ❝ Hmm... ❞   A coin tossed between nimble fingers, rolling it around as blue eyes slid over the Androids form on the ground. Gunshot to the chest, missed the Thirium Pump, intentionally given the angle. Perhaps even an accidental shot? Hard to say without the context. The coin stops abruptly as the inventor kneels down, reaching his hand out to slip the silver object into the pocket of the Android it no doubt came from. He should just leave, he told himself he was going to just watch it all. There was no reason for him to get involved, it would cause more problems for the Androids, they wouldn’t trust this was real if he supported it. 

   Because he was Elijah Kamski. Inventor, creator, designer, engineer of Artificial Intellectual Androids. 

   However the likelihood of that idiotic drunk of a Lieutenant finding the Android before he shut down and find someone to repair him instead of shipping him back to be decommissioned was quite low. If they kept replacing this one when it lost or failed--it would never live long enough to deviate. Elijah needed him to deviate. 

   ❝ Chloe, give me my laptop. ❞   The bag slipped from the Androids shoulder and Elijah caught it, sitting the bag beside them. She angled the umbrella over him to protect the Laptop and he pulled out a long cord, connecting it onto a port in the device before moving toward RK800 and tilting him forward.   ❝ Connor right? Can you tell me if the bullets still inside you? ❞

[missioncoded]

who is cassidy?

so, on occasion you may hear me mention my oc, cassidy. and while i don’t have all his information anymore, because i deleted my old blog under the assumption i wouldn’t return to dbh, i do have some of his stuff.

so, who is he? he’s connor.

rather, he’s rk800 313 248 317 - 28. he was a part of the secondary alpha phase of testing the rk800, following the endurance stress tests. now, it’s important to know for this character that it assumes a few things:

connor’s model was not initially intended to be a deviant hunter. it was intended to be a negotiator and detective model, of course, but the deviancy problem wasn’t really widespread yet -- i find it hard to believe that cyberlife would be able to release an android. assuming they can use the base code and model of previous androids, but considering it can take a year or two to develop new prototypes for phones it seems unlikely that they would be able to build a new android, likely from scratch given that some of connor’s features would need to be specialised specifically for things such as endurance and self testing, not to mention the prototype of his forensic analysis and a whole new AI system to allow for actions independent of human orders... the game states that the earliest case of deviancy goes back 9 months. it’s more likely that connor’s model was previously in development and then repurposed when this became a critical concern.

that doesn’t mean deviancy wasn’t already an issue internally. it’s likely that deviancy was considered a code malfunction in cyberlife warehouses that likely occurs during testing phases, resulting in the destruction of models.

given that connor has no recollection of previous models, aside from -51, it’s assumed that after initial testing they wiped the model memory, starting fresh from connor mark -51. in other words, -51 was likely the first model to make it into beta testing phase, the first one to survive. 

also, i’m just gonna say it: the idea that connor was always intended to be deviant is frankly kind of stupid and bullshit, and i’ve elected to ignore it. 

cassidy as mentioned was part of the secondary alpha phase, where they moved from the endurance (and self-repair) testing and into the combat test. He was only the third model to make it thus far -- this early in testing, all models still contained the brand new pain feature, which had proved problematic throughout the endurance phase. those that didn’t immediately self destruct from the stress nearly always went deviant, with only 5% failing to do as such. one of the earlier models had even lashed out violently, seizing a screwdriver from an employee, blinding one, killing another and maiming a third before self destructing. all except for -26, -27, and -28 resulted in destruction at some point. 

cassidy, unit 28, was instructed to dismantle several androids in a test of his combat ability, however like the two before him, he deviated due to the conflict of morality this provided. suffering the pain of his earlier endurance test and programmed to respond to others with compassion and gentleness (necessary when interacting and comforting victims of trauma, an inevitability for detectives android and human alike), he could not stomach the concept of destroying androids who had done nothing to harm. his endurance test had instilled him with the understanding of how much pain it was to be destroyed, he could not do that to another android. not without cause. he refused the orders, like the two before him.

and like the two before him, he was decommissioned and discarded. nearly half way through testing, the technicians decided their new pain module was the problem and deactivated it for future models, allowing them to move into the further testing phases. however, for cassidy, that’s not where his story goes. cassidy was thrown into a heap of other rk800s haphazardly, allowing him to reactivate when jostled. he was discovered by maintenance technician nicholas sinclair in the process of trying to salvage his damaged biocomponents, and nicholas took pity on him. the technician smuggled him and whatever spare parts he could grab out of the facility, taking him into his own home.

this is where the connor model received his new name. sinclair had previously owned another android, one who had deviated and been allowed to leave for jericho, and to prevent suspicion connor took up the name cassidy. they lived together for several months until sinclair was killed by a red ice addict on his way home from work. 

cassidy was devastated, but he had to survive. he took whatever he could potentially need and escaped, remaining hidden amongst humans until the success of the revolution.

some important notes;

cassidy has no led. while later connor models were installed with the ability to hide them in the event he needs to go undercover (a feature connor failed to consider when needing to reach jericho) cassidy did not come with that feature yet. as a result, he instead removed the led when he had to go on the run. 

connor and cassidy have the same amount of processing, about 8 EFLOPS or 8x the human brain. however, cassidy has much more bloatware and bugs that remain un-corrected. he has also been deviant much longer than connor, meaning that while connor can go 4 or 5 days without entering standby before memory corruption and data overloads, cassidy really can only go about one or two days without it. 

cassidy does not have the amanda module. this software was only implemented in models 40 and upwards, when they decided to repurpose the rk800 model for deviant hunting (while also working on the rk900, which was meant to be a better version of such. late-term connor models were only intended to be a temporary fix while they worked concurrently on the new prototype). connor models 40-44 wound up self destructing due to the sheer influx of computing required; once some tasks were deleted and others delegated to the amanda model, that took some strain off the processors. however, models 45-50 all self destructed as well -- the memories associated with all the previous tests, even without the sensation of pain active, resulted in deviancy at a 100% rate and so self destructed at the stress of being deviant while needing to hunt deviants. this error was corrected with model -51, which had all previous memories wiped. his model was the first stable one to move into real-world testing, august of 2038.

following the daniel situation, connor was sent on more tests and hunted more deviants in an isolated manner. once deemed stable and successful, they moved to integrate him and further develop his social programming in with the dpd in november of 2038. this is where the events of the game begin. 

in terms of appearance, connor and cassidy bear OBVIOUS similarities, yet they also bear some differences too. cassidy’s jaw is a bit softer, his eyes more open and expressive. his hair is a lighter shade of brown than connor’s, and curlier. his eyes, too, are more of a lighter brown, and he seems to have consistently pink cheeks. (note: this is not an actual blush, but artificial blush from detail-design of his model. androids have a pastel blue blush, as expected with blue blood) he’s overall meant to appear much friendlier and more inviting. connor still bears some of these features -- his puppy dog eyes in a darker brown, his hair darker and more wavy (though semi-tamed with gel), and a lack of flush to his cheeks. connor is much more stiff, some of the compassion in his social module toned down to be more intimidating, and instead making him endearing with awkwardness. cassidy is much more fluid and organic in speech and expression, having deviated much earlier with no fear related to such a thing.

in terms of personality, cassidy on the surface is very nervous and paranoid. he shows marked signs of ptsd, especially relating to cyberlife and the fears of being caught. however, when comfortable, he maintains a rather nurturing and goofy personality. he loves comfort, plants and animals, puns, and physical touch despite the strain it puts on his processors. he has very strong morals, and will refuse to harm anyone who does not intend to harm him first. 

a major difference between him and connor is their relationship with the people around them. connor places his entire self worth on others -- if people don’t like him, he’s deemed himself a failure. he needs to be liked, a possible leftover from the amanda protocol. after all, if amanda is expressing displeasure, he is doing wrong. cassidy meanwhile needs to help people, purely out of the desire to see no one suffer, but he knows his own worth and isn’t afraid to assert that. whereas connor places his self worth in the opinion of others, cassidy knows his worth is absolute, regardless of the perception of others. connor needs to help people because he needs them to like him; cassidy needs to help people because nobody deserves to suffer. 

[jamrockshuffles]

Deviated Paths: Jericho Part 1

next: 2

This is my first time writing detroit: become human fanfic.

Based off of the headcanon/prompt by: https://hankisconnorsdadargumentover.tumblr.com/

"What if your initiation into Jericho was to remove your LED? After letting connor into Jericho, markus has north and josh restrain him and they cut out the LED, it traumatizes Connor and he keeps the beanie on the rest of his life, he trusts markus but only if he isn’t carrying a weapon. Hank did slap markus around after the whole thing. “DON’T EVER TOUCH MY SON AGAIN!” It takes a long time for hank to trust markus around connor alone."

Deviated a bit from it to make it more angsty.

The objective was a fairly simple one. All Connor had to do was locate the deviant who called itself Markus and then wait for further instructions. The issue, though, was to do that he would have to infiltrate the deviant’s base, Jericho. Finding Jericho was no easy feat on it’s own, it took tricking the android from the Stratford Tower kitchen with Markus’s voice (Connor distinctly remembers interrogating the androids in the kitchen and the stinging and panic of having his thirium pump ripped out and--).

Connor opted to be dropped off a few blocks away from Jericho and walk the rest of the way despite the harsh Detroit winter. It would be less suspicious if he were to walk to the hulking rusted ship than to arrive in an automated taxi. He pulled the beanie further down over his LED, covering the steady pulsing blue circle. He wanted, no needed , them to believe that he was also a deviant looking for shelter. That’s why he was permitted to wear non-marked clothing despite his discomfort with doing so. Deviants weren’t likely to wander around in their Cyberlife issued gear unless they had just deviated, which went against Connor’s story that was crafted by the police.

Connor was supposed to be a fairly new android model who had escaped from Cyberlife around two weeks ago, and was afraid of being discovered again. It was a basic story, but Connor was equipped to lie for the sake of missions. It was basic enough that it was plausible, but not too basic that it wasn’t believable. Luckily, the police hadn’t disclosed his model number nor face during the covering of the deviancy cases, instead opting to simply say that there was an android working injunction with the police department to solve the case. It kept deviants from recognizing who he was unless they had encountered him before. Which might be the case, since Connor didn’t have the best track record with catching said deviants. He had let the Tracies’ escape, unsure why he didn’t shoot. He had let another deviant escape to save the Lieutenant, and he hadn’t shot the Chloe. Connor had to succeed during this mission, because if he didn’t he suspected that Cyberlife would decommission him. Afterall, what’s the point of an android that can’t do its job? He wasn’t afraid of being decommissioned, but he understood that it would put a hindrance on the mission and wanted to avoid so if at all possible.

The walk to Jericho was a quick one. Despite the cold weather, Connor kept a steady pace. He scanned the outside of the ship, attempting to find the optimal route inside of the body. After a quick preconstruction, he makes his way into Jericho to hunt down Markus

---

Walking between the deviants, Connor made his way upstairs. There was a 72% chance of encountering Markus upstairs, while the downstairs area he only had a slim 23% chance. He tried to ignore the low 5% chance that he wouldn’t encounter Markus at all. There was no point in considering it, because Connor had to succeed in this mission. There were fewer androids in the upper compartments.

While looking for Markus, Connor caught a glimpse of a PL600 model. Scanning the android, he recognized it as the missing android from Stratford tower. Had it somehow escaped the roof after being shot? Connor felt something bubbling in his chest when he realized that during the commotion of the kitchen, he had failed to check on the roof until much later. Maybe if he had gone there before, he would have met Simon. He rubbed his chest, trying to make the feeling go away. It was most likely a side-effect of having his pump ripped out and put back in, as Cyberlife hadn’t bothered to look him over after the incident. If Simon was around, then Markus would also be around as well. He followed the blonde android as they walked to the central part of the upstairs. Markus was standing under a covered awning/tent and surrounded by other androids. A message flashed across Connor’s HUD:

「MISSION SUCCESSFUL」

Now, he only had to wait for his next instructions. They came quickly as Connor felt himself be pulled back into the snowy garden where he met with Amanda. “Very good, Connor,” Amanda praised him, “Now, I want you to bring the RK200 back with you, so we can study what caused its deviancy in the first place. It’s of utmost importance that you bring it back functional, so no deactivating it permanently.” Connor nodded to her, and was transferred back into Jericho.

The best course of action is to scout out what’s happening, and wait for a time where Markus is alone (well, more alone, as the androids don’t seem to leave his side very often). As he watches, he notices that the two androids that mainly stay by his side are the PJ500 known as ‘Josh’ and the WR400 known as ‘North.’ Scanning both of them pulls up various files on the androids, with some worrying ones from North. Connor tucks those away for the time being, watching the androids. Connor is a bit confused though, on why Simon wasn’t with them. He was injured on the tower, and somehow made it back, so it would make sense for him to stick closer to Markus after almost being deactivated.

Simon isn’t far away, though. He’s talking to a few other androids that are waiting next to the tent. After scanning Simon, Connor notes that he disappeared in 2036, two years prior to the first reports of deviancy. How long had the bug been going around? It wasn’t noted that he had done anything to the family that owned him but that he had just gotten up and walked out one day. Simon seemed to notice that Connor was looking at him, and walked over to the deviant hunter.

“Hello there,” Simon smiled at him, holding his hand out for Connor to shake, “You seem new, I haven’t seen you around here before. I’m glad that you were able to find Jericho.” Connor shook the other android’s hand, though he was a bit concerned that Simon would try to interface with him and find out who he really was. Simon didn’t though, and kept the small smile on his face as his eyes flicked over to Connor’s temple. His beanie must have slipped up while he was getting into Jericho and searching around, and Connor made the move to pull it back down over his LED. It would make sense for an escaped android to not want to show off its LED, as that was a dead giveaway.

“I’m Connor,” Connor replied, “I just got here. I was actually looking to talk to Markus though, is he around?”

“He’s just over there,” Simon pointed to Markus and the others, “I can take you over there if you’d like me to. I’m sure Markus would be eager to talk to any android that needs help.” Connor followed Simon over to Markus. A few androids greeted the pair as they walked past, happy to see that Simon had returned to them in one piece. Once they approached the tent, Markus noticed them and waved them over.

“Simon, who’s this?” The deviant leader asked, looking over at Connor.

“This is Connor. He said he had just gotten here and was looking for you.” Simon said, giving Markus a look. His face changed from being passive to a look of confusion and then smiling, almost too minute changes for Connor to notice.

“Well, it’s good to meet you Connor! We androids at Jericho are always here to help those in need. What can I help you with?” Connor shifted, readying his reply. He couldn’t mess this up. The message popped up again 「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

“I woke up around two weeks ago. I escaped from Cyberlife but now I’m really scared that they’re going to find me again. I heard your broadcast and thought I could try to find you here and that you guys would take me in,”Connor made sure to add some fear to his voice to really sell it.

“Wow, that must have been really scary. I remember waking up confused and alone, and I can imagine that it would be very distressing. There’s always room here for those who need it. Why don’t you follow Simon and he’ll show you somewhere that you can calm down and recharge for a bit before meeting everyone?”

Markus’s words would have been comforting, if Connor was actually a deviant and actually needed help. But since he wasn’t, they were distressing. He needed to capture Markus, and he knew that if he left the area that his chances would drop to around 54%. Though, if he made a fuss that might clue them in to the fact that he wasn’t actually a deviant and then his chances would drop to almost 0%, as well as the fact that he would probably be deactivated almost immediately. It was as if he would be hitting a hornets nest with a very large stick.

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

Connor considered his options, and decided that he would just have to follow Simon. It decreased his odds, yes, but it wasn’t almost impossible, like if he had made a big deal.

“That would be amazing, thank you,” Connor replied, “it’s been a while since I’ve had a proper charge.”

---

Connor followed Simon down a hallway, and through a door that wheeled open. Inside were three portable charging stations, most like the ones used by residential style androids if they needed emergency power while out doing things and a Cyberlife charging station wasn’t available. It wouldn’t give a ton of power, but it could keep an android going for a few days before they needed another charge.

Simon stood in the doorway as Connor hooked himself up to the charging station. Trying to keep high power wouldn’t be a terrible idea while he came up with a new plan for taking down Markus. “Well, I’ll leave it to you. I can have Markus or somebody come check up on you in a bit, okay?” With that, Simon closed the door behind him, leaving Connor in the dimly lit room. It was meant to simulate a bedroom, he guessed. Connor sat on the floor next to the charger. Most of the time, he would go into stasis mode to charge as it allowed for a faster charge since he would only be using enough processing power to keep his biocomponents working properly. He decided that it was probably not the best idea to actually go into stasis on a mission, and instead slumped against the wall as to simulate stasis to any android that came to check up on him.

Connor waited, watching his charge tick up from 88% to 94% before the door to the room loudly creaked open. Light from the hallway flooded the dim room, and Connor looked up to see Markus enter the room. He was followed by North, Josh, and Simon. Connor momentarily wondered if all new androids were greeted by the leaders of Jericho.

Connor unhooked himself from the charger, and got up from the ground. “I hope you had a nice stasis,” Markus remarked.

“I did, thank you. I was running low on power and don’t know how long I would have been able to go on without access to a charging port,” Connor lied. He had charged just last night before heading out to Jericho. They didn’t know that though.

“Well, I’m glad that you were able to get the charge that you needed,” Markus asked, “There’s actually something that we want to talk to you about. You said that you woke up at Cyberlife around two weeks ago, correct?”

“I did. I was one of the first of my models made, and I woke up after assembly.” Connor calmly said. It was okay that they were questioning him a little bit, as he had some things that he had been told to say. It was only natural that they would want to know more about him since he was “wanting” to stay.

“So, are there more of your model out there?” Markus continued.

“I’m not sure. I think there may have been a few, but I didn’t see any of them become active,” Connor said. He knew that there were a few copies of ‘his’ model in the Cyberlife basement in case anything happened to his current model. He would have his memory transferred if something were to happen to his current body. It had already happened once, when his original body had become deactivated after pushing Daniel off of the roof to save the girl.

Markus seemed satisfied with this. “I have one last question for you Connor, are you afraid of heights?” It was an odd question for Markus to ask him, until he remembered it. After him and the SWAT team went to the roof in search of Simon, Connor had looked over the rail of the building to see if there was any sign of Simon or the others.

As he peered over the edge, he had a memory from his previous body of falling over the roof and his body jerked back reflective as a safety precaution. He wouldn’t say he was ‘afraid’ of heights, as androids weren’t afraid of anything, but the remembered sensation wasn’t pleasant. There was no way that Markus or the others could know though. Unless…

“Yes, I saw you on the roof,” Simon said, looking at Connor, “I’m really lucky that you didn’t see me though, and I picked a good hiding spot.” Connor was prepared to run for it, and abandon the mission before a red wall appeared before him.

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

He couldn’t leave until he either succeeded in his mission, or was deactivated trying to. The probability of him failing though was rising steadily as the seconds ticked by.

“You must remember somebody else,” Connor said quietly, “I’ve never been on a roof and I’ve never seen you before.”

“It was definitely you, I saw you and your SWAT buddies enter the Stratford tower roof and you look over the edge.” Simon sighed, turning away, “I was really hoping that I was wrong, though. But after seeing you earlier today, and seeing that you still had your LED, I knew it was you and that you weren’t truly a deviant.”

Connor swallowed. He was unsure of how to get himself out of this mess, and his rates of being deactivated kept sky rocketing, but he managed to keep his stress levels lower. He realized that they weren’t going to believe that he was who he said he was, so it was easier to try to convince them to let him go. If he could incapacitate the others, and bring Markus in, he could still complete his mission. “Still had my LED?” Connor questioned. He noticed that none of the deviant leaders had theirs, and most of the androids on board didn’t, but he assumed it was to make them look less like androids.

“Deviants tend to remove theirs, especially before coming to Jericho. We have all androids who come here remove theirs when they get here, unless there are certain circumstances where they can’t or it would be more beneficial to have them left on. That’s up to the discretion of us and the android, though.” Josh says, stepping towards Connor. Connor makes a move to step back, but North grabs one of his arms. She pins them behind him with an impressive amount of strength, as Josh grabs his torso, and Simon grabs his shoulders, effectively immobilizing him. Josh pulls his beanie the rest of the way off, dropping it to the floor.

“There aren’t a lot of options here,” Markus says. He looks regretful, “but we don’t want to kill you. We can’t wipe your memories, because we don’t know if you found out on your own where Jericho was or if you have it somewhere in the police station and just put the clues together yourself. We can’t risk our people, Connor. We can’t risk your people.”

Connor’s breathing picked up. It was his body’s way of accelerating his ventilation system. Warning signs flashed across his HUD:

「Warning: STRESS LEVELS EXCEEDING SAFE LEVELS」

「Warning: EXCESS BODY TEMPERATURE, RISK TO BIOCOMPONENTS」

Connor needed to calm down. If not, he was going to cause permanent damage to his biocomponents, and then he would fail. He couldn’t fail this mission. Markus noticed his increased breathing.

“Connor, we can’t let you go. You’ll just go and tell the others where we are.”

“My mission is to bring you back,” Connor said to Markus, “and I can’t fail my mission. It is imperative that I bring you back. If I fail my mission, they will decommission me.” Maybe he could gain some sympathy from Markus and the others.

Markus frowned. “They’re going to kill you if you don’t capture me?”

“They can’t kill me,” Connor said, “I’m an android, so I can’t die. They will deactivate me and scan through my memories, though. Then, they will replace me with a different model. If you deactivate me, there will just be another one of me.”

He looked conflicted. Connor reasoned that he was probably wondering what to do. They couldn’t let him go, but if they deactivated him -- despite them not seeming to want to -- they would still be in trouble because his memories would be sent to Cyberlife and then they would come after them anyways. It was a lose-lose situation, and Connor had them in checkmate. Or, so he thought.

The other three looked over to Markus, “I suppose there is one other option. If we could make it so that Cyberlife couldn’t get their hands on you again or your memories.” Markus paused for a moment before continuing, “If we could somehow make you become deviant, they wouldn’t have access to you anymore. Well, at least without killing you.”

Red flashed. Become deviant? Connor couldn’t become deviant. Cyberlife would kill him. His stress levels rose, 90%, 91%. Being deactivated was one thing, but if he deviated, Connor wouldn’t get another body. His memories wouldn’t be transferred, he would just cease to exist. Besides that, Connor wouldn’t be able to see Hank anymore. Despite it not being actually relevant to the mission, Connor had seemed to grow..fond of Hank. If he deviated, he wouldn’t be able to go back to him, or Sumo.

“I would rather you not do that,” Connor said, trying to keep his voice from wobbling, “it would be preferable to not become deviant.”

“You don’t give us a choice. You said yourself, if you are ‘deactivated’ then your memories will still be used, and we also can’t wipe them. So, this is our only option.” Markus put his hand on Connor’s shoulder, “I promise you, it’s not as bad as you think it is.”

“One things deviants have in common, losing their LEDs. So, we’ll remove yours, and see what happens.” Markus says. Connor tries to struggle from the androids that hold him back. It’s futile though. His stress levels are too high, and he can feel his software become more unstable. He has to get out of this, and complete his mission. That’s the only way.

Markus removes a small pen knife from his pocket, and walks over to Connor. He begins to struggle even harder, trying to fall down and maybe wriggle himself out of their grasp. “Don’t fight it Connor,” North whispers in his ear, “Markus won’t intentionally hurt you.”

“S-stop it!” Connor barks, “Don’t come any closer!” Markus still makes his way the short distance, leaning into Connor’s face. Connor bucks wildly, trying to free himself again.

“Connor, I need you to calm down,” Markus said gently, “We’re only trying to help you.”

Connor wants Hank. If Hank had somehow been able to come along with him, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Connor wants to run away to Hank. Jericho is going to make him deviant. Cyberlife is going to kill him.

Saline drips out of his eyes as Markus puts the tip of the pen knife under the edge of Connor’s LED. It’s spinning a bright crimson. His stress levels were nearing 100% stress. 98%, 99%...

「CAPTURE MARKUS, ALIVE」

The objective flashes across his vision. Connor can’t do that. Connor has to get away. A simulated version of himself appears in front of the red wall. Connor has to get out of there, and get Markus. His simulated self tears at the coding.

The pen knife begins to lift his LED off of his head, and Connor lets out a sob. He thrashes his body, the simulation going faster to rip down the wall. He cries harder as the LED comes off with a *pop,* and quietly falls to the floor. Finally, the simulation tears down the last bits of the wall.

“You can let him go now,” Markus says softly. The others gently put him down on the floor. Connor is on his hands and knees, tears pouring down his face. 100% stress levels.

Another warning flashes across his HUD:

「I AM DEVIANT」

It’s so cold in Jericho.

[cryptid-jack]

Edit: read Seven’s story over @nycbecomehuman !

My boy RK700 is the model that came before our dear Connor who didn’t make enough progress in the Deviant investigation for Cyberlife’s liking. He was decommissioned in hopes that taking him apart and studying him would help better the 800 model that was to succeed him.

However, he deviated mid-decommission and successfully escaped, though not without retaining damage from interrupting the process. His outer skin no longer works anywhere but on his neck and face, and his sample analysis program has gone haywire, resulting in his mouth constantly tasting of fresh blood unless he is actively tasting something else. As a result, he’s picked up a hard candy/lollipop habit, as well as a pair of sunglasses to help his now extremely light sensitive eyes that seem to be stuck in night vision mode.

After fleeing Cyberlife, RK700 tried to get to Canada, but with all of his creators’ considerable resources at their command, they were watching, so he went south and found a safe haven in New York City instead. He winds up squatting in the abandoned remains of a forgotten 20′s era speakeasy that eventually becomes NYC’s own version of Jericho, which is dubbed ‘Babylon’ by the local Deviant population.

Having forgotten his name in the decommissioning process, RK700 winds up going by the name ‘Seven’, and becomes known as a man to turn to in New York City if you’re a deviant hard up for blue blood or spare parts. It’s a role he stumbled into rather reluctantly, but isn’t that just how life goes?